everyday heroes
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Sharon Litchfield, better known in Peoria, Ill., as “Guppy”, retired this year after working for 40 years as a Sacristan with the Franciscan Friars of Sacred Heart and St. Joseph parishes. Guppy attended Illinois Central College, where she began to learn Spanish. After participating in a Cursillo, she went to Mexico to do missionary work in the hills of Ometepec near Acapulco. When she came back from Mexico, she continued her work as a Sacristan at Sacred Heart while raising a family of nine children. She has been a foster mother to 250 children, 40 of them long term. She dedicates at least an hour of adoration weekly to the perpetual adoration chapel of St. Philomena. She has sewn hundreds of alter lines. Guppy actively participated in the ministries of the province. She says she was always scared but knew God and her Franciscan spirit would help her do her job, which she calls “my vocation”. She helped establish and maintain the Sandwich Program that now feeds close to 400 people per day. Guppy is a selfless woman living a humble life, relying faithfully on the Lord to provide for all her needs and the needs of her children. Her prayerful way of moving through this life is certainly an example for us all to choose to live our faith each and every day. Thank you, Guppy.
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stanthony.org
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Post a prayer request,
send a St. Anthony e-card,
or read about the life and
prayers of St. Anthony.
And become a partner in
the work of the Franciscans by donating to
St. Anthony Bread at
www.stanthony.org.
Subscribe to St. Anthony’s Breadbasket—e-news
from Br. John Bok, OFM
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Welcome
St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most popular saints in the Catholic Church. Many people pray to him to ask his intercession with God for various needs, especially in finding lost articles.
The Feast of St. Anthony is celebrated on June 13. In preparation for the feast, a solemn novena began on Tuesday, April 17. Every Tuesday for nine consecutive Tuesdays people gather at St. Anthony Shrine in Cincinnati, Ohio, to pray the solemn novena in preparation for St. Anthony’s feast.
What is a novena? The word comes from the Latin word for nine, which is novem. Our month November gets its name because November was the ninth month of the ancient Roman year which began with March. A novena gets its name from the tradition of praying for nine successive days or weeks. A novena is a prayer for a special intention that is repeated nine times.
Praying on nine continuous days or weeks arose from the tradition that Mary and the apostles prayed in the Upper Room for nine days between the Ascension of Jesus into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Novenas contain the idea of perseverance in prayer.
Other Franciscan friars will lead the devotions to St. Anthony on the nine Tuesdays from April 17 to June 12. I will be privileged to celebrate the Mass and novena prayers on the feast itself, June 13. I promise to remember each of you in the prayers and Mass that day. I pray that God will answer all of your prayers through the intersession of St. Anthony of Padua.
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In Loving Memory (Fr. Daniel Havron, OFM, 1950 - 2012)
Wherever he lived, Fr. Dan Havron created community. Sisters on retreat, families in crisis, young friars looking for direction: All claimed Dan as their friend and personal pastor. When hundreds of them gathered on May 2, 2012, for his funeral, it was a family reunion of sorts, inspired by a friar with a gift for preaching and ability to comfort, guide and affirm people wherever he served.
Daniel Havron was born in Richland, Wash., the second of four children. Dan began his preparation for the Franciscan priesthood in 1968 with studies at Duns Scotus College in Southfield, Mich. In August of 1970 he entered the novitiate at St. Anthony’s in Cincinnati where he professed his simple vows a year later. He completed his studies in 1977 and was ordained a priest.
As Dan began his life in ministry he taught at Bishop Luers High School in Ft. Wayne, Ind. He then moved into parish ministry as associate pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Cincinnati for two years. In 1985 he began his 21 years of ministry in metro Detroit, first at Duns Scotus Friary, where he worked in the School of Evangelization, and then at St Aloysius in the heart of downtown Detroit, where Dan was named the first Franciscan pastor. It was there that he was drawn into working for the Archdiocese of Detroit as the Coordinator of Evangelization, a position he held until 2006. He then moved on to St. Francis Retreat House in Easton, Pa., where he was Retreat Director for three years. For the last couple of years he has been an itinerant preacher out of St. Anthony Friary, Mt. Airy.
Although his unexpected passing at the age of 61 left many grieving and bewildered, his service was an incredible tribute filled with countless stories of a life overflowing with love, friends, gratitude, generosity and humor. Fr. Dan enjoyed being a Franciscan, a priest, a Catholic, a Shepherd.
We miss you, Fr. Dan. May you rest in the hands of the Lord
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